It sounds like a repetition of the same theme: the old versus the new. Like wood so old it hails from millions of years ago and still holds a connection to the forest from whence it came. Maybe the greater the age, the greater the effect?

Also: as a medic with PTSD I'm very familiar with trauma responses. First, know that your reaction to being grabbed after multiple prior grabbings that nearly killed you is totally normal. It's your fight/flight/freeze/fawn response kicking in, and it's difficult to turn off. Fortunately there are a few techniques you can use: Grounding exercises and box breathing.

Grounding exercises vary but are all about simple tasks you can focus on to push through a trauma response. There's 5-4-3-2-1 where you identify five things you can touch, four things you can see, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. There's ROYGBIV, where you identify objects around you in each color of the rainbow. Then there's my go-to, where you memorize something that's meaningful to you and recite it over and over. I use a poem, Invictus by William Ernest Henley.

Box breathing is like it sounds: breathing in a box pattern. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and repeat. You can choose any amount of time you like as long as your breaths are equal and consistent.

It's shitty when it happens but those responses are your body trying to keep you alive. It makes total sense that the more often you face death, the more active your responses will be.

Also for therapy: you could talk about the flickering man as an acquaintance that assaulted you. Be vague about timeframes and just say you were physically assaulted after an argument. The sad truth is that that's common enough that your therapist won't bat an eye....unless they work for the administration.